So the discretionary fund is.....**drumroll**.......£100 measly quid!?

in_my_bumble_opinion

 Am I reading this right? 

Guess we can just go ahead and order our heating oil then. 

I wonder how people will get their £100? 

How can the government check if you have an oil-fired boiler? A scan of your latest receipt for heating oil? 

I sense a hoop coming our way.

wwally

I'm guessing that this will be administered by the Local Authority using proof of purchase. It's £100 per household so the supplier cannot know who else we've been buying from. Until further detail we don't know what are the conditions, though I would wait until 1st October in case there is a date cut off (which would be unfair given oil purchases are very lumpy).

I cannot understand a government that makes announcements (2 on this measure alone) with no detail of the implementation.

magickmagpie

Presumably local authorities know what households are in their area from their Council Tax records, they should also be able to find out which of these are not connected to the gas grid. They could then issue these households with a £100 voucher to be used against the next purchase of heating oil or LPG to be delivered to the address on the voucher - except that this doesn't really help anyone who has already filled up for the winter unless the voucher would last for 12 months and could be used against their next fill up. Alternatively, they could give a £100 discount to the Council Tax paid by these households - but then would have to actually pay £100 to any household on low incomes who get Council Tax reductions. It's actually quite complicated and not helped by the fact that the Government have given no idea how the scheme will be implemented. And £100 isn't much of a discount in the first place, but I guess it's better than nothing!!!

in_my_bumble_opinion

magickmagpie said:

Presumably local authorities know what households are in their area from their Council Tax records, they should also be able to find out which of these are not connected to the gas grid. They could then issue these households with a £100 voucher to be used against the next purchase of heating oil or LPG to be delivered to the address on the voucher - except that this doesn't really help anyone who has already filled up for the winter unless the voucher would last for 12 months and could be used against their next fill up. Alternatively, they could give a £100 discount to the Council Tax paid by these households - but then would have to actually pay £100 to any household on low incomes who get Council Tax reductions. It's actually quite complicated and not helped by the fact that the Government have given no idea how the scheme will be implemented. And £100 isn't much of a discount in the first place, but I guess it's better than nothing!!!

What about those households that use electricity for heating? They are not connected to the gas grid. The discretionary fund (as I understand it) is for those on oil, lpg, coal, etc, not for those who heat their home with electricity, since that rate is already capped.

It'll be interesting to see what the gov comes up with for this.

M0ssim0_2

Whilst grateful for any help, the £100 isn't exactly equitable to the £100s if not £1000s worth of help, over the two years, households on gas mains will benefit from. Who on earth sits down and says 'right, we'll give all this help to these people, but these people over here can make do with £100, if they don't like it, tough'. Not exactly just in my eyes. 

RobM99

M0ssim0_2 said:

Whilst grateful for any help, the £100 isn't exactly equitable to the £100s if not £1000s worth of help, over the two years, households on gas mains will benefit from. Who on earth sits down and says 'right, we'll give all this help to these people, but these people over here can make do with £100, if they don't like it, tough'. Not exactly just in my eyes. 

How do gas users get help? The £400 is off electricity, or so I thought at least.

wwally

RobM99 said:

How do gas users get help? The £400 is off electricity, or so I thought at least.

The £400 is paid to all households through electricity bills but is to cover both electricity and gas on-grid energy. The £100 is a top-up for off-grid fuel users such as heating oil, LPG and solid fuel.

Effician

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RobM99 said:

M0ssim0_2 said:

Whilst grateful for any help, the £100 isn't exactly equitable to the £100s if not £1000s worth of help, over the two years, households on gas mains will benefit from. Who on earth sits down and says 'right, we'll give all this help to these people, but these people over here can make do with £100, if they don't like it, tough'. Not exactly just in my eyes. 

How do gas users get help? The £400 is off electricity, or so I thought at least.

Gas users are being subsidised by about 5p/kwh , the difference between the ofgem Oct cap & the new Gov't cap

maisie_cat

Does anybody have a link to this, I saw a BBC article relating to Northern Ireland but can't find anything else. We are solid fuel so I would be extremely surprised if there is any help forthcoming, wood pellets are 12p/kWh now.

MX5huggy

I don’t think there is much out there yet. Martin’s short tweet being about it. https://twitter.com/martinslewis/status/1572892283611004932?s=46&t=Ek-tv2HT06gn5La3GR-Q_A

I’m not expecting a complicated voucher system, just cash paid, there are too many variables of fuel suppliers and types. 

NedS

All things being equal, the current government price cap on the cost of gas equates to an oil price of around 90p/L when calculating the cost per kWh, so oil at current prices is broadly equivalent to the help being given to gas customers for the next two years. On that basis, I would not expect much help for oil customers based on today's prices - what has not been discussed is what support will exist if the price of oil were to substantially increase from it's current levels.